The first room was empty. Not that surprising seeing as it was the entranceway. But… Cassandra had still expected some form of rubble. The ceiling was clearly unbalanced, with all kinds of things wedged between the boards. Wind should have caused it all to slowly fall to the floor, creating a layer of dust and other materials bad for human lungs. Yet, there was nothing of the sort.

Somebody had been cleaning the rooms. Somebody had been here within the last day or two. Sending a message to Jules, both officers brought out weapons. Non-lethal to begin with, but Cassandra was more than ready to quick-draw a more dangerous one. She was fully aware of what weaponry was being used, and she was not going to allow herself to succumb to them.

The next room was studied, the one formerly used for sleep. There wasn't much furniture to speak of, there only being a badly stained sofa and a smaller table. Giving a glance to the torn sheets on the floor, Cassandra wasn't too sure if she wanted to involve them in the equation. No human could have slept on those, right? That was something fit for the dogs, and even then it was stretching it.

Scanning the corners, no detecting apparatuses were seen. Neither was Jules able to detect anything, be that in the air, on the floor, or just surrounding them in any way. The rooms hadn't been booby-trapped. That was good to hear. Cassandra had heard the stories, after all.

With her not having been in the area for that long, she had not been on one of the expeditions yet. Every two years or so, it was common to scan through the forest for any criminal activity. Would-be drugs-lords, slavers, and whatever other depravity humans could think of had been done in the woods the woman stood in. It was a perfect hiding spot, which was exactly why it needed to be cleaned every so often, lest larger predators would come in, searching for easy targets.

Jared had not talked much about what he had seen inside houses such as the one Cassandra was in, but the reports had not put any of it in a good light. The slavery was still a sore point for the woman. They hadn't been meant for labour but for the pleasure of extreme sadists. The things done to those people were more than just inhumane. The conditions they had been set in were meant to have been torture. They had been forced to feel pain with no pause, filmed for the pleasure of the people paying to see it. It was not hard to see why Cassandra wanted it gone from this place.

And it was also why she was being so careful. Those who were smart enough to see opportunity were likely also smart enough to prepare for the situations they would be put in. If any of the criminals had used the area for themselves, Cassandra knew for a fact that something had to be in the house. It might not have been a recorder, but there just had to be something.

The woman cursed herself for not thinking it a good idea to bring extra equipment. What she wouldn't have done to bring one of the more advanced scanners. It was used for sweeping larger areas by the SWAT, but it was more than helpful in finding electronic traps. Sure, it couldn't find a grenade strapped to a door, but it worked fine with most traps.

Without it, it just meant that Cassandra was forced to use more discrete options. Checking for threads, looking through slits, and making sure to make no quick movements was some of the standard ways to survive out in the fields.

And going through doors… was one of the harder things to do. It wasn't impossible to know what was on the other side. Sure, there were no sounds to hear, but that didn't mean there was somebody with a rifle ready to shoot through any kind of defence she had to offer.

Jules was the one to take the lead this time, the automation better with doors. After checking it for any attached parts, with there being none found, it was decided to go the route of surprise. That meant going through the door instead of opening it.

To rephrase it in other words, the construct took a few steps as a running start before just breaking through the wooden board serving as a door. The automations body was hard compared to the door, and it offered no resistance at all. Cassandra hung back, checking the corners of the room, while Jules went into a position where it could hide from fire.

None came, luckily. But… there was something else. A table.

Not that a table was the most interesting thing in the world. Honestly, Cassandra had seen an identical one in the other room. But, it was what was on the table that intrigued them both. Electronics, breadboards, wires of various sizes and lengths, and what could have only been called weaving fabrics meant for extremely expensive circuits were scattered across the wooden table. Even the cables alone must have been worth more than most got in a month's pay.

‘Whoever had been here must have left in a hurry,’ Jules commented, starting to reach for one of the boards. Cassandra stopped the construct, however, more than just serious when staring at it.

‘Could have been trapped. Don't touch anything until the house is deemed clear. One more room to check,’ Cassandra sent. The construct was quick to withdraw its hand after that, putting it back on the pistol at hand.

Together, they moved through the doorway once again. The last room was to the left of the other, and… it seemed older. Less used, would be a more appropriate description. From the frame itself, Cassandra could see more dust lying on the ground. Whoever had cleaned had clearly not seen a reason to go through the doorway. That would normally hint at nothing being on the other side, but… it also had an entirely different meaning. There was a chance that it was something so serious that it was not commonly interacted with.

Those worries were entirely unfounded, in the end. On the other side of the door was a room without a ceiling, the wood very clearly not having been able to keep up the weight for long. Snow was piling in, covering most of the floor. What little warmth had been preserved inside the house disappeared entirely when Cassandra opened up the door, wind pushing into her face.

Looking around, there was nothing but old canned food. Some were full but most were empty. Looking at the labels, most of them predated her own birth. How exactly they had survived the conditions they were put in, Cassandra wasn't entirely sure. Neither was she too curious about it.

‘House is clear,’ she finally stated through the channel, her own words causing much tension to be lost. There was nothing there that could have been called human. Only leftovers from previous inhabitants.

Inhabitants who clearly didn't have a lot of time to pack. Getting back into the other room, Cassandra cast another look on the various pieces of materials. It was not the first time a criminal had been in possession of such things. In fact, it was more than a little common to see. But… not in these amounts. And even on those rare occasions, there was no way they would be left behind.

After having Jules do his best to find traces of explosives in the air, courage was gathered to assort the different items strewn across the table. And it was quite the assortment at that. With the help of recognition software, every piece was easily categorized and put into the correct bundle. Just how had a low-brow criminal accessed it all?

‘Anything interesting to note?’ Jules asked over the channel. Neither was speaking verbally, making as little sound as needed. There was no real need to, after all. And it wasn't like Cassandra had any desire towards doing such a thing. The chemical composition was still in the air, according to the automation who had been checking it every few seconds. They would need an estimate on just how far-reaching it was. Was it close to the edges of the city? If so, it was way out of hand when compared to what an officer was supposed to be dealing with.

‘We are working against very lucky idiots or unfortunate geniuses,’ Cassandra summarized. From the look Jules gave immediately after, she decided that some elaboration was in order. ‘The components seen here come from a very diverse range of machinery. Some come from kitchen appliances, with an example of such being this heap of knotted wires. Not the most surprising, when you ignore the good quality of them. However, it does get more complicated when you look at the stolen circuit boards. If we lived in a country that was currently enduring a relentless civil war, I would understand how a civilian got their hands on the insides of a non-standard issue Gatling gun seven times in a row.

Since we are not in a civil war, though, I find it hard to believe that the criminals have found seven of these circuit boards in perfect condition, yet they very much have done just that. This can mean two things. Either this means that they are very lucky in their scavenging, and have just not realised the treasures they have stumbled upon. Or, with this being my theory with a higher chance of being correct, we have encountered people adept at this profession, who have simply been forced to retreat from their base of operations within the minute, only grabbing the essentials. The tools here are incomplete, strongly hinting that somebody simply took a handful and left everything else behind. Do you understand now?’

‘I understood by the first part, but you certainly seem to have thought about it a lot,’ Jules said, taking one of those extremely expensive circuit boards and throwing it in the air. Cassandra winced as she saw something worth ninety-five thousand dollars be interacted with in such away. The automation might not have needed to worry about static electricity on the fingers, but they could still very easily be destroyed. With their high value, they were obligated to report the find to the higher-ups. ‘Any chance we’ll be able to keep a few of these?’

‘The ones worth less than ten thousand dollars will be auctioned within five years. If you ever get the right to buy things, you can buy it then,’ Cassandra answered, trying to figure out just how she was going to get the items back to the station. There was still no desire to retreat back there already, but now there was the unstoppable pressure of her breaching code by leaving the items there another day. Maybe she could-

‘A shame. Guess we’ll just have to put those six circuit boards in a bag and bring them home,’ the automation sent back, making a small tick with its tongue. Six? Just what was it talking about?

Looking over at the automation, Cassandra was about to ask just that until… she noticed there was nothing in the construct’s hands. They were empty. Looking at the floor, the circuit board had clearly not been putten back, only six of them sitting there. Had she… miscounted? No, that didn't make sense. Her recordings very clearly stated that there were six. She might have been able to make a mental error like that, but the recording could not have.

Looking back at the automation with new eyes, the woman glanced throughout its body. Nothing important in the hands, the sleeves were like they had been moments before, the shoulders were without any change, the breast pocket was as unfilled as before, no knew indents on the stomach, and… there it was. In the left pocket of the trousers. Just the edge of it could be seen, but Cassandra could still very clearly see what was there.

They stared at each other's eyes. Cassandra was serious. Jules gave a dumb smile.

Cassandra gave up and left the room, deciding to leave the trouble for another to find. She could bring the goods over at another time if they were still there at that point. There were more important things to do, after all.